Novels and History Papers
by konpyu-tamania
Summary: 3x4 When Trowa transferred to boarding school it was to focus on his studies. He hadn't expected to become entranced with one of his classmates, let alone for that classmate to notice his attention. Trowa POV, Boarding School fic. Maybe be continued...


**Novels and History Papers**

**By:** mellonemrys

**For:** Gypsy

**Prompt:** GW, 3x4, boarding school fic

**Warnings:** Trowa POV, shonen-ai, and bad interpretations of what boarding school is like.

**Notes:** I don't normally writing in first person, but it was what finally hit me and stuck, though it does seem to make my writing more paragraph heavy. I also haven't ever really done a true 'school fic' so to speak…but hey, first time for everything. And again, I can't seem to write in small doses…**(Additional notes at end of fic!)**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own GW or the characters unless made up by me.

* * *

He'd been sitting in the library since classes had ended for the day and I could still see his pencil moving over the pages of his notebook. Every few minutes he'd pause to flip the page, or peer at something in one of the dozen or so books propped up around him on the large table. For some reason I liked watching him work, it was almost relaxing. He stopped again and yawned, stretching his arms above his head. From my position I could just barely see the strip of pale skin that was revealed as his shirt rode up. I turned my eyes back to my book, still on the page I'd been at for the past hour and a half. Setting it down I let out a frustrated sigh and closed it.

When I looked back up his books were already stacked in one corner of the table and he was slipping his notebook into his school bag. He must have felt me watching him because he looked up for a split second before shouldering his bag and picking up the stack of books. The library would be closing in a few minutes, just before curfew. I waited for him to disappear toward the front desk before gathering my own things and following him.

The front desk was deserted except for his pile of books sitting in a neat stack. They were all on Medieval History; Class A had a paper due on the subject first thing in the morning. I smiled a little, I hadn't taken him as a procrastinator. Though Class A had quite a few difficult teachers this term. He'd probably been working on papers all week.

Leaving through the main entrance, I didn't see anyone in the halls. Though at this hour most of the other students were getting ready for bed, cramming for exams in their dorm rooms, or getting back from off campus adventures. Of course there were the exceptions. My roommate tended to blast music until someone called security on us. Or there were the students that enjoyed each other's company a little too much for the school board's liking. The dorm room across the hall had been home to one such couple. Once the school had found out, the two had been moved to dorms on opposite ends of the building, both next to teacher's offices.

It didn't bother me too much, if they were stupid enough to get caught, that was their problem. I had enough to worry about with my classes, my strange roommate and my lack of a social life.

With the blond no where in sight I began heading back to my room, rubbing sleep from my own eyes. I'd been up late the night before trying to finish a paper while trying to ignore The Beatles belting out the majority of The White Album from my roommate's headphones. I'd made it all the way to my floor when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned and was met with blue eyes, blond hair, and a frown.

"Yes?"

The blond didn't say anything for a few minutes, just studied me. For a moment I felt like I was a new animal he had captured and was intent on exploring every inch of. He held up a key with a twist of green and black ribbons acting as a key chain, the key to my room. "You must have dropped this…"

I felt my back pocket where I normally kept it and felt nothing. "Thanks."

"You don't really like Dickens, do you?"

He was referring to the book I hadn't been reading while we were in the library. "He's a bit long winded, but I have another two of his books to get through before the end of term."

That received the hint of a tired smile. "I have McAllister next term, I'll keep that in mind."

I nodded, and looked up and down the hall. I'm sure I would have noticed if he'd lived on the same floor as me. "It's almost curfew…"

"I know. See you later." He walked back down the hall to the staircase but stopped after taking a few steps. "Next time you should just come over and talk, its not as creepy."

I heard his footsteps slowly disappear as he rushed down the stairs and I let myself into my room. Duo was sprawled on his bed, homework in stacks around him. If I hadn't known better I'd say that he'd dozed off, but as soon as I put my bag down next to my desk he sat up and grinned.

"Hey! Wanna give me some help with my history essay?"

Smirking I pulled out my chair, "Maybe you should write it on The Beatles, you must have their discography memorized by now."

Even with my back turned I knew he was frowning at me, arms crossed. "Unfortunately Dr. Kepner wouldn't like that. Come on, Tro! You're my last hope! Cat flaked on me to write his own essay and said I couldn't copy it."

"You should have worked on it last night. I have to finish reading the next five chapters of my book."

"I thought that was what you went to the library for today."

I stopped, my hand hovering over the straps on my bag. "I remembered I had a paper for another class and decided to work on that instead." I said, suddenly grateful that I was a fairly good liar.

The rest of the evening passed by fairly slowly and remarkably quiet thanks to my roommate's will not to fail his history class. Around one in the morning I finally pulled off my tie and unbuttoned my shirt to get ready for bed. Duo was still working on his essay, but I could fall asleep almost anywhere if I put my mind to it. I pulled the blankets over my head, effectively shutting out most of the light from his lamp and closed my eyes.

* * *

The next day was highlighted by one of the freshmen chemistry classes managing to both light the classroom on fire and cause the chemical closet shelves to collapse. Between the fire department and the chemical hazard cleanup crew they canceled classes for the rest of the day. I found myself out in the quad with Dickens and a sandwich from the cafeteria. My plan was to finish the book and thus eliminate some of my homework for the remainder of the week, but Duo's sudden appearance dashed my hopes. He had a soccer ball tucked under one arm and was waving me over to the field.

With a sigh I slipped my book back into my bag and slung it over my shoulder, following Duo. There was a small group of students in various states of undress in the center of the field. They were apparently in the process of picking teams and as I looked over the small group I realized they were short one player. Lucky me.

I left my bag next to the others on the sidelines and dropped my uniform jacket and my tie on top of my small pile. I finished rolling up my sleeves as I joined the group and a few of the other students gave me an odd look. Like they hadn't expected me to know how to play, let alone be invited to join in the game. Shows what they knew about me. Duo just grinned at everyone as he picked me for his team and tossed me the ball. I stopped it with my chest and let it dead-fall to the ground, placing my foot on it as soon as it was still.

Someone snorted and my attention was drawn to the same blond I'd had my run in with the night before.

"Duo, he hasn't touched a ball in over a year. I know you were planning on having him be your 'secret weapon', but I'm not sure you have much of a chance."

The sharpness in his tone surprised me, as did the icy glint in his blue eyes. Perhaps he was having a bad day.

Duo wrapped an arm around my shoulders, "Cat, I think you underestimate my roommate. Just because he didn't join the team when he transferred doesn't mean he suddenly lost all his skills. Not anyone becomes Varsity Captain after their freshman season, ya know."

The blond smirked, "Trowa Barton, Baker High's Varsity Soccer ex-Captain…we'll see."

The two teams took the field, the blond playing striker against Duo and another of their classmates. I took my position at midfield and awaited the kick off. The blond tapped the ball forward to his other striker, who took possession and passed it backwards to one of their mids. It was obvious that they'd played together before. My attention shifted to the blond's current position, he was making a b-line down the field toward me. A quick glance back to the other team's mid confirmed my suspicions and the ball took flight, arching in a path that would land it between me and the blond.

Duo had dropped back a little and was on my outside, which was good. If I could intercept then pass the ball off to him we could have a possible shot. I closed the distance between myself and the blond, pushing off the turf and tilting my head in Duo's direction as I made contact with the ball. The blond hit me a second later throwing us both to the ground. My head met the hardened turf with a thud and my vision faded into black for a few moments.

When I opened my eyes the other students were gathered around me, sans the blond. I tried sitting up and felt the ground shift under me and put my head down again and closed my eyes.

"Someone get the nurse…" One of the students said after I didn't move again.

It was another half an hour before the school nurse came running across the field. Most of the other students had left, but Duo and one of my classmates had stayed. The nurse forced me to sit up and felt the back of my head finding a rather large bump. She took out an ice pack and had me hold it to the back of my head while she grilled Duo and my classmate about what had happened. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the blond sitting on the side of the field, arms draped over his knees. He was staring at me, but with the massive headache and the distance I couldn't tell what his expression was.

The nurse finally got me on my feet and walked me back to the infirmary where she made me lay down, take a few aspirin and told me I had a slight concussion. When I asked if I'd be able to go back to my room before curfew she nodded then disappeared into her office.

I relaxed a little, I didn't have any homework to worry about, which meant I could go straight to bed, get a good night's sleep and hopefully feel much better in the morning.

The door to the infirmary opened and the blond walked in, a slightly worried look on his face. "I'm sorry."

I shrugged and closed my eyes against the pounding in my head. "It happens."

"…you should have tried out for the team when you transferred in."

Opening one eye I looked at him. He'd pulled over one of the chairs and was sitting in it backwards, arms crossed over the back of the chair. "I transferred here to focus on my academic studies."

"So? You're smart, the classes you're taking shouldn't be much harder than what you were used to. Maybe a little bit more homework, but other than that, the work level is pretty similar to other high schools."

A few things connected in my brain all at once, "You're the Vice Captain of the team. The one who kept sending me notices when I first got here."

"…guilty as charged."

I smiled at that. "Nice to know that someone was excited for me to transfer here."

"How so?"

"Coming from a public school background doesn't tend to get you on the 'interesting' list here. At least that's what I've found."

"True. Captain didn't even want to bother trying to recruit you. He was a bit relieved when you didn't show at any of the tryouts. It meant he could just form the team like he'd drafted out at the end of last year."

"Favorites?"

"Yeah, a whole team full of them. At least we can all play, but it is a bit annoying going into the year and finding out the captain picked the team long before tryouts were held."

I shifted the ice pack a little bit and found a more comfortable position to lay in.

"You should let me make it up to you."

"What?" I turned and looked at him, and I'm sure my expression was puzzled.

"Let me make this up to you." He said again and stood up.

"How?"

A small grin tugged at his lips, "I'll come up with something I'm sure. After all one of my best friends happens to be your roommate. He's nosy enough to have the dirt on you."

My eyebrow rose, how making up knocking me to the ground and giving me a concussion involved Duo's knowledge of me was beyond comprehension in my current state. But some part of me didn't like it. I shook my head in annoyance and turned away from the door, listening as his footsteps made their way to the door then left the room.

* * *

I woke up the next morning with a sizable headache. The bump had grown and I felt dizzy and slightly nauseous even trying to sit up. Duo offered to stop by the nurse's office and have her let my teachers know what had happened the day before. I nodded off after some of the pain had subsided and only woke up for a few minutes when Duo dropped his school things off his classes.

It was dark outside before I finally drug myself out of bed to take a shower. The shower made me feel a little more human, but my headache still wasn't gone. There was still a dull ache when I moved my head. Wrapping a towel around my waist I went back into the room, nearly tripping on the carpet when I saw the blond sitting on Duo's bed, reading over an essay. He glanced up and smiled, then went back to reading. I have to admit it was awkward, having the person you'd been watching, sometimes even day dreaming about, sit in your room as you tried to get dressed.

I managed to get my pants on before I heard him move across the room. I could feel his gaze on my back but forced myself to ignore it. He placed his cool hands on my shoulders and ran them down my arms, stopping just above my elbows so that he could wrap his arms around my waist. My body shuddered at the unexpected contact and he pulled me closer, resting his head on the back of my neck.

"Trowa…?"

His voice was soft, but strong. I didn't answer back, I wasn't sure what to say, or what to do. Nothing like this had ever crossed my mind. It was new and I was a little scared to see where it might go.

"Trowa…I know that you come to the library to watch me study."

I swallowed and I felt him move with my heavier breathing.

"And I know that I like you."

I raised my hands and pulled his apart, separating us. He seemed to be expecting it and stepped back, pushing his bangs out of his eyes nervously.

"I'm sorry…this must seem strange…Duo mentioned you didn't go to class so I thought I'd stop by…I'm not sure what got into me."

Sitting down I looked at him for a long time before I said anything, "I don't even know your name, let alone how I feel about this."

He smiled, I had to admit I loved his smile. "Its Quatre."

"Quatre…Duo calls you Cat, right?"

"Yeah, its an old nickname."

"From when you went to the zoo in the third grade and wanted to know everything about the big cats…Duo told me the story."

Quatre laughed, "You probably know as much about me as I know about you with the way Duo talks."

"Maybe." Against my better judgment at the time crossed the room to my desk and began shuffling through a stack of papers for lack of anything else to keep my hands busy.

Quatre stood as well and leaned against one corner of the desk, examining the photos I had taped to the wall. "You really should try out for the team, I know how good you are…and not just from listening to Duo."

I raised an eyebrow and began taking the pile of books I'd accumulated on my desk over to the book shelf and putting them back in some semblance of order.

"I transferred here part way through my freshman year when my parents got divorced. My first high school was in the AA league, so we never played you, but we heard about you from some of the AAA teams that we got to play against."

"All good things I hope…"

Quatre shrugged, "As good as it could be from the teams you slaughtered."

Placing the last book on the shelf I studied Quatre out of the corner of my eye. I liked him, and I was attracted to him enough that I would sit in the library just to watch him. Having him interact and talk with me was a little different though. He wasn't just the student with blond hair that I passed in the hallway once a day. Quatre was sitting on the edge of my desk, wanting to do more. I closed the space between us, suddenly feeling my stomach turn over. Being nervous was natural, I would just have to keep telling myself that.

As of now, neither of us are sure who moved first, but we both agree that first kiss was sloppy at best. It wasn't as easy as they made it look in the movies, nor was it what I was expecting. Our dry lips met and were parted, tongues making them slippery and warm.

The door opened and I jumped backward, Quatre turned red and nearly fell off the desk, and all Duo could do was stare for a very long minute. Quatre left a few minutes later after saying goodnight, and Duo went to bed without a word.

The next morning when I woke up there was a copy of the janitor's key sitting on my desk. Apparently Duo thought supply closets would be more private. And I have to admit that they're handy for in between classes.

The End

* * *

**Notes:** Thanks a bunch to: sexysadie for noticing I'd misspelled 'the Beatles'! That is what I get for not using a beta!

This was originally just a one shot in response to a drabble request...however I've gotten several requests to continue it...so maybe. It'd be nice to play more with Trowa.


End file.
